Thread by @PSainath_org

1/7. Tweets paraphrasing my open letter to the Chief Justice of India responding to his lament that “the concept of investigative journalism is unfortunately vanishing from the media canvas.” But how and why did that come to be so. Story link at end of thread.
#CJI #mediafreedom

2/7. For about 30 years, I had argued that the Indian media are politically free but imprisoned by profit. Today, they remain imprisoned by profit, but the few independent voices amongst them are increasingly politically imprisoned. Some under the UAPA.
#CJI #mediafreedom

3/7. I do not see the judiciary stepping in to stop this mayhem, whether on governmental corruption, or the mass retrenchment of journalists, the gutting of labour rights, or the misuse of the PM’s title to raise funds free of any kind of transparent audit.
#CJI #mediafreedom

4/7. The judiciary did not distinguish itself on the issue of the now repealed farm laws either. It should have reviewed the constitutional validity of such contentious legislation. Instead the court set up a committee to produce a report on the crisis.
#CJI #mediafreedom

5/7. The court then consigned its own committee and their report to oblivion. With this, it added to what was really a ‘death-by-committee’ sentence with the death of the committee itself. Weren’t the farmers right in scorning the committee in the first place?
#CJI #mediafreedom

6/7. The CJI rightly observes that investigative journalism is vanishing in India. But doesn’t the judiciary need to confront the reality that press freedom is at its lowest ebb in independent India’s history? Shouldn’t the judiciary step in to save freedom?
#CJI #mediafreedom

7/7. Sure the media need to do better. The judiciary can help – but surely must also do better itself? Both media and judiciary, and all of us, will be judged harshly by each additional day that a Siddique Kappan spends in jail.
Link: ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/op…
#CJI #mediafreedom